Photos courtesy of Sky Angel
Master control room at Sky Angel monitors all of the channels broadcast 24 hours a day, seven days a week.

Rendering of Sky Angel headquarters in Naples. The family-programming TV service transmits over high-speed Internet.

NAPLES - A local Internet TV broadcaster has turned up the volume on its fight against programming giant Discovery Communications.

And it's embroiled in another legal battle as well, with National Cable Satellite Corp., the owner of C-SPAN.

In 2010, Naples-based Sky Angel filed a program-access complaint with the Federal Communications Commission against Discovery after it unplugged an agreement that allowed the small Internet-based distributor to carry five of its affiliated channels, including Animal Planet. After hearing nothing from the FCC on its complaint, Sky Angel has taken its battle to federal court.

"They said they were uncomfortable with our technology, which was unfortunate because the system that we have is specifically described and explained in the agreement — it was no surprise to them," said Thomas Scott, Sky Angel's president. "To us, we were baffled."

In January, Sky Angel U.S. LLC sued Discovery Communications LLC and Animal Planet LLC in U.S. District Court in Maryland, alleging their agreement was cancelled improperly and that early termination has led to "substantial business losses" for the small faith-based and family-friendly network. The company wants damages and a jury trial.

"We've lost subscribers — we figure somewhere between 700 and 1,000 — and a million-plus in revenues as a result of that, of their cancelling the agreement," Scott said.

Losing out on new subscribers as well has stunted the company's growth and will cripple future profits, Sky Angel alleges in its breach of contract complaint.

It was in December 2010 that Sky Angel got a call from a vice president of programming for Discovery about its decision to end the contract; in January 2011, Sky Angel received the official letter of cancellation, Scott said.

At the time, Sky Angel had 25 channels, so taking away five meant losing 20 percent of its total, he said.

Sky Angel now offers more than 40 Christian, family-friendly channels, directly delivered to the TV. Customers subscribing to the service get a receiver box, giving them a digital-quality picture without a dish, antenna or professional installation. The encrypted programming is delivered over high-speed Internet.

Sky Angel now offers more than 40 Christian, family-friendly channels, directly delivered to the TV. Customers subscribing to the service get a receiver box, giving them a digital-quality picture without a dish, antenna or professional installation. The encrypted programming is delivered over high-speed Internet.

"We've been out there five years, as the only company in America using Internet to deliver real-time television," Scott said.

A spokeswoman for Discovery Communications had no comment, with the legal dispute still pending. The company has responded to the lawsuit, but much of what it has to say is blacked out in court records or sealed to protect confidential business information. Details of its contract with Sky Angel aren't public.

Discovery has asked for a judgment in its favor, saying Sky Angel's complaint "does not contain facts, even when taken as true, that set forth a claim for relief that is plausible on its face." In support of that motion, Discovery says it fully complied with the contract's termination clause, and therefore, there is no case.

While Discovery didn't tell him exactly why it cancelled the contract, Scott said he suspects it comes down to competition.

"I think the cable and satellite industry see us as a new entrant into the marketplace and aren't comfortable with us being in the marketplace with them," he said. "We really never saw ourselves as competition. We are kind of a niche player. We really only do family-friendly TV channels."

The legal action against Discovery is just part of what Scott describes as David taking on Goliath. In November, Sky Angel filed an antitrust lawsuit in federal court in Washington, D.C., against the National Cable Satellite Corp., the owner of C-SPAN, which offers programming such as congressional meetings.

In the lawsuit, Sky Angel alleges C-SPAN violated antitrust law when it suddenly pulled its programming from Sky Angel's lineup in 2009, after it appeared for only a few days. Sky Angel seeks damages.

In the lawsuit, Sky Angel alleges C-SPAN violated antitrust law when it suddenly pulled its programming from Sky Angel's lineup in 2009, after it appeared for only a few days. Sky Angel seeks damages.

"We believe that there was a conspiracy basically to turn us off that goes beyond just the single company wishing to do it," Scott said. "We believe it's an industry effort to deny us that programming."

The nonprofit National Cable Satellite Corp. is owned and operated by the U.S. cable industry. The suit alleges C-SPAN's board of directors, made up of executives from the top 10 cable companies, "hijacked the public service mission of C-SPAN" and used the programming as "an instrument to boycott, exclude, injure and destroy Sky Angel."

"They are attempting to get into federal court by dressing up their program access complaint as an antitrust violation," said Bruce Collins, C-SPAN's corporate vice president and general counsel.

Even if the court agreed there's an antitrust argument, Sky Angel hasn't made enough of a case for the lawsuit to move ahead, he said.

"At most, they have a simple contract dispute with us — and a loser at that," Collins said. "But instead Sky Angel is knocking on any legal and trade press door it can find to get what their business model can't give them."

Jonathan Rubin, a Washington, D.C.-based attorney for Sky Angel, said the company finds C-SPAN's response to the lawsuit "strange and troubling."

"The FCC has declined to exercise any jurisdiction over Sky Angel," he said. "So they are basically asking the court to end a case, to send the dispute to a regulatory agency which is unlikely to give us any relief. Their plan is that we do nothing and that we get no relief until their campaign of denying us programming finally drives us out of business."